Performance Evaluation Of A High Grade Low Heat Rejection Diesel Engine With Crude Pongamia Oil

Experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of a high grade low heat rejection (LHR) diesel engine with air gap insulated piston, air gap insulated liner and ceramic coated cylinder head [ceramic coating of thickness 500 microns was done on inside portion of cylinder head] with different operating conditions [normal temperature and pre-heated temperature] of crude pongamia oil (CPO) with varied injection pressure and injection timing. Performance parameters of brake thermal efficiency, exhaust gas temperature and volumetric efficiency were determined at various magnitudes of brake mean effective pressure. Pollution levels of smoke and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) were recorded at the peak load operation of the engine. Combustion characteristics at peak load operation of the engine were measured with TDC (top dead centre) encoder, pressure transducer, console and special pressure-crank angle software package. Conventional engine (CE) showed deteriorated performance, while LHR engine showed improved performance with CPO operation at recommended injection timing and pressure and the performance of both version of the engine was improved with advanced injection timing and at higher injection pressure when compared with CE with pure diesel operation. The optimum injection timing was 32 o bTDC for CE while it was 31 o bTDC with LHR engine with vegetable oil operation. Peak brake thermal efficiency increased by 12%, smoke levels decreased by 6% and NOx levels increased by 41% with CPO operation on LHR engine at its optimum injection timing, when compared with pure diesel operation on CE at manufacturer’s recommended injection timing of 27 o bTDC. (Before top dead centre)